Category Archives: Jennifer Warnes

Because I may not know music, but I know what you should like… and where to find it

This is a very good audience recording.of Jennifer Warnes’ “Famous Blue Raincoat” LP Showcase, Park-Café, Munich, West Germany; April 15, 1987. “Famous Blue Raincoat” is, of course, an album of Jennifer Warnes’ performances of songs by Leonard Cohen.

From the download site:

In January 1987, Jennifer Warnes released her sixth studio album, Famous Blue Raincoat, a tribute to Leonard Cohen, with whom she had toured as a backup singer in the 1970s. The idea for the album originated when Cohen assisted Warnes with the lyrics of “Song of Bernadette” while on tour in 1979. Warnes is probably best known for her duet with Joe Cocker on Up Where We Belong, which appeared in the 1982 movie, An Officer and a Gentleman.

The recording includes Leonard Cohen’s introduction of Jennifer Warnes, in which he sardonically informs the audience they can continue to laugh and talk as well as expressing his discontent with his record label.

The files are already in MP3 format available for download directly from the site, thus avoiding the need to enter codes, decompress the files, or deal with the hassles of services such as Rapidshare. The files are also tagged (correctly, as far as I can determine) with the name of the song, the artist, and “Leonard Cohen – Birmingham 1979” listed as the album name. Only the cover art, available on site, need be added post-download.

Jennifer Warnes: I phoned Leonard on the day that my mother – who in many ways was my ‘significant other’ – died. ‘Was that somehow strange, devoting one’s life to one’s mother?’ I asked. His response was impeccable.

Never question where love comes from. We have no control over these things. From a stranger, a mother, a dog, or that perfect mate, it comes from wherever it comes. You were lucky, in fact – everyone hopes to find love in the place that you found it.

More Weirdness From The 1970 Leonard Cohen Tour

The final piece of the 1970 Leonard Cohen Tour Backup Singers puzzle is the role Donna Washburn played as backup singer that year.

It should surprise no one who has been following the Heck Of A Guy account of the 1970 Leonard Cohen Tour to discover that, notwithstanding reports found on the official Leonard Cohen site, LeonardCohenFiles, LeonardCohenForum, and 1800+ other sites – including the usually astute Heck Of A Guy – declaring that she served as backup singer at the most famous of Leonard Cohen’s 1970 concerts, the number of times Donna Washburn sang backup to Leonard Cohen in 1970 was zero, zip, zilch, nada, …

She was, however, a backup singer during the Leonard Cohen 1972 tour although she is overshadowed by Jennifer Warnes, Cohen’s other female vocalist that year. And, Washburn had an interesting professional career prior to 1972. But, first, let’s clear up the mistaken notion that she sang backup for Cohen in 1970.

Another Cautionary Tale About Internet-abetted Press Releases

The problem arises from the official blurb for the 2009 release of the Leonard Cohen Live At The Isle of Wight 1970 CD/DVD put out by Columbia/Legacy:

CD-DVD Cover art – Leonard Cohen Live At The Isle Of Wight 1970

This excerpt is taken from the copy of the press release from LeonardCohen.com but is identical to that found on hundreds of other sites:

While my attempts to discover through official channels why Donna Washburn was credited as a backup singer on the Leonard Cohen Live At The Isle of Wight 1970 CD/DVD were unrequited, Aileen Fowler aka Susan Musmanno (backup singer, along with Corlynn Hanney, on the 1970 Leonard Cohen Tour) offers helpful information:1

… there’s a third girl onstage in the Isle of Wight video; that was the only time I ever saw her. She was a friend of Ron Cornelius’s. I don’t recall ever seeing Donna except at the Isle of Wight. I am assuming that she is the girl sitting behind Ron in the video. She doesn’t appear to be miked, and looks like she is just jamming along. We never rehearsed with her. I can’t think that she would have been paid. And that was the only time she showed up on my watch. Why she got a backup singer credit for that performance at IOW is a mystery to me.

She [Jennifer Warnes] goes for real emotion in the back up vocals … her taste is impeccable, her musical decisions are impeccable. I’m very pleased with this project [Famous Blue Raincoat album] for many reasons. I love Jennifer as a person and as a singer and the fact that she’s dedicated all that talent to my songs – well you don’t have many of those gestures made towards you in your life.

It’s significant that these two Leonard Cohen references to Roy Orbison, both dated 1988, are the only allusions the Lord Byron of Rock ‘n’ Roll made to the Big O I found – until I came across a Jan 30, 2017 article about the re-release of Roy Orbison’s Black & White Night video.

Jennifer Warnes was one of the friends at Roy Orbison’s September 30, 1987 Black & White Night With Friends performance. Her entire account of the event, including Jackson Browne inviting her to participate and her work with T Bone Burnett, Elvis Costello, k.d. lang, and Bonnie Raitt, is a treat to read (and the full article is available at the link below), but the focus of this post is on the influence this experience ultimately had on Leonard Cohen. The following excerpts are pertinent:2

“I told Leonard he needed to be there [at the Black & White Show], because I knew it would be good. He was my friend and my ticket, … I remember where Leonard was sitting, and Rebecca De Mornay [who was briefly engaged to Cohen] was there…

“In studying Anita Kerr’s arrangements I began to understand how to support a pop record with stacking, and what that does to a song… She [Warnes] contrasts stacking (“a slang term generally used in the recording studio, when one singer can compose an arrangement and then sing all the parts in layers”) with the process of “my generation of recording artists, who lowered the costs and risks of recording live by multi-tracking or overdubbing. Meanwhile, digital technology can now ‘clone’ vocals: Virtual choirs can be constructed by an engineer through ‘cut and paste’ technology–infinite construction [such that] the live, real, spirited force in the room when music is created live, is absent.”

A week after the show, then, Cohen, “like he usually did,” sent Warnes a number of new songs to go over and make suggestions. He must have been deeply impressed by the show and was very respectful of Roy afterwards,” she says. “I picked what I thought I had something strong to add to, including ‘Tower of Song’–but didn’t tell him I was taking the information I learned from Anita Kerr and applying it. When he showed up at the studio I told him he probably wasn’t going to like what I did, but to give me a chance. I’d layered up three or four voices on ‘Tower,’ and he just loved it and ended up going with that approach for many years. He was hooked on the idea of making his recordings sound more pop.” [emphasis mine]

So, while it seems safe to assume that Leonard Cohen, the aficionado of jukebox tunes and country music radio, must have been aware of Roy Orbison prior to 1987, it appears that Jennifer Warnes and the 1987 Black & White Night were the catalysts that led Cohen to Orbisizesome of his songs and make his “recordings sound more pop.”

Also Featuring Jennifer Warnes, Harry Rasky, Judy Collins

While this video from ZoomerMedia is labeled only “Leonard Cohen,” I agree with Gordana Stupar’s speculation that it is the CBC broadcast “An Evening With Leonard Cohen.” It certainly fits the description of that show found at Diamonds in the Mine:

3 March 1989 – An Evening With Leonard Cohen – CBC
Documentary featuring interviews and live clips from Paris 1988. Jennifer Warnes, Harry Rasky, Judy Collins, Moses Znaimer provided comments and clips from the BBC Songs from the Life of Leonard Cohen were also included.

I’m like the waitress. I’m bringing the food. But I didn’t grow the food, you know? And I can think of no more beautiful job than to have loved [Leonard Cohen] and supported him and known him. That to me is like a very fulfilling feeling. There’s no emptiness when I think of him.

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Leonard Cohen’s Passionate Version Of “So Long, Marianne”

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The Cohen-Dylan Interface

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